When comparing Gmail vs Gboard - the Google Keyboard, the Slant community recommends Gmail for most people. In the question“What are the best Material Design apps?”Gmail is ranked 11th while Gboard - the Google Keyboard is ranked 16th. The most important reason people chose Gmail is:

Since both the Gmail Android app and Gmail itself is made by Google, the app supports all features Gmail offers (like labeling/starring) and gets new features implemented early - usually as soon as they are announced.

Pros

Pro

Best support for Gmail features

Since both the Gmail Android app and Gmail itself is made by Google, the app supports all features Gmail offers (like labeling/starring) and gets new features implemented early - usually as soon as they are announced.

Pro

Incredibly fast, advanced & predictive search

Gmail brings much of the functionality and power of Google's search engine to the app's search. You can use operators such as label:, is:, OR, has: among others, define date ranges, limit search to specific groups and so on. And, you can do it all amazingly fast. The search will also try to predict what you're trying to search for before you've even finished your query and offer up those results.

Pro

Comes bundled with Android for free

Not only is the application free, it comes bundled with the Android OS by default so you don't even have to bother downloading it.

Pro

Google Drive integration

The app allows inserting files from Drive straight to email or uploading attachments to Drive before sending them out. It will also notify if the person you're sending the file can open the file or if you should change the sharing settings for that file beforehand. Finally, you can choose which one of your Google accounts you want visible in the app.

Pro

Safely automatically displays images

The app does not require a confirmation to show images as Google now hosts the images on their own servers making it safe. You can still disable the automatic displaying of images in the settings if you wish.

Google Calendar integration

Pro

Threaded conversations

Pro

Tabs to automatically organize your e-mail

Each of the categories can be disabled and you can move your mail around from category to category or set your own rules which sender should be put in which category.

Pro

100% free from Google

This keyboard is not a free trial nor will it hold back any new features to sell you a paid version. The keyboard is completely 100% free.

Pro

Swipe support

The Google Keyboard supports swiping along the keyboard to spell out whole words.

Pro

Learns preferred words

After using a gesture a few times and clicking the correct word, Google Keyboard learns that the gesture should result in the word you've manually selected as the correct word. Swype doesn't seem to learn this, so even after 100 times clicking 'this' instead of 'thesis', it still produces 'thesis', where Google Keyboard learns that you meant to say 'this'.

Pro

Minimalistic design

While other keyboard options may be very functional, their visual design tends to differ from the rest of your Google device. The Google Keyboard was designed by Google and it looks like it.

Pro

Material Design

Google Keyboard has material design themes the user can skin the keyboard with.

Pro

Has built-in Google search

The keyboard has button that allows searching Google straight from the keyboard, and use the search results in the currently used app.

Pro

Emoji search

The GBoard has an emoji search that's very convenient, saves time looking for a specific one if you don't know/remember what category it's in.

Pro

Fast, low memory usage

Alternative keyboards tend to suck up system resources, often making them nearly unusable on older phones. Google Keyboard is very quick to open when typing and the keys rarely lag.

Pro

One-handed mode

Makes it easier to type with no more than a thumb.

Pro

Suggestions don't get worse over time

Google keyboard does not promise to be as "smart" as other keyboards besides offering a personalized dictionary. Surprisingly this is actually a good thing for some because with many "smart" keyboards predictions and corrections actually worsen over time. With Google Keyboard the experience will remain constant because it requires you to manually "touch again to save" before it changes your personal dictionary. This prevents mistakes from becoming part of your personal dictionary.

Pro

Can use alternative layouts not just QWERTY

For those that are used to typing on a Dvorak keyboard or prefer not to need multiple key presses to access special symbols they can enable these as additional quick switch options. Using the English PC layout for example gives the user a number row.

Pro

Swipe to punctuation

Hold down the key in the lower left hand corner and a keyboard if punctuation appears. Swipe over to the one you want, lift your finger, and the original keyboard pops back. It's very fast, and makes it much easier to spot the punctuation mark you want - instead of trying to squint at the secondary symbols in the keys.

Pro

Dynamic floating preview

The dynamic floating preview appears while gesture typing. Most gesture keyboards only show the preview above the keyboard in the suggested corrections. The dynamic floating preview is great because it makes it easier to gesture type by keeping your eyes focused on what you are typing.

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Cons

Con

Sorting mail by Unread is unintuitive

Nearly every other mail app has a clear way to sort mail by Unread. In Gmail app you can do that only by typing “label:unread” in the search field.

Con

No intrinsic p2p encryption option

Con

Too brights, no dark theme

Con

Changed theme and can't change it back!

Did it without permission and it looks terrible! Washed out look, solid white background with black lame fonts.

Con

Advertising has been added to the client

Con

Very limited HTML composing

Composing of HTML formatted mails is very limited. No inline images and only some basic text formatting options

Con

Too heavy

It should be lightweight.

Con

Limited notification buttons

Con

Very little customization

Google Keyboard allows you to enable or disable

vibrate on keypress

sound on keypress

popup on keypress

double space period

These are pretty useful basic settings but most other keyboards offer more options. Google also allows you to edit the personal dictionary.

Con

Horrible Word Prediction

Con

Typing is not always smooth

Sometimes typing lags.

Con

Restricted customization (few skins)

Con

Takes up a lot of storage

If you are using multiple languages and predictive text, the app can use up a lot of storage.

Con

Prediction isn't as good as SwiftKey

Con

Uses a lot of RAM

Con

Can't pop out keyboard

The keyboard can't float above an app and is instead docked to the bottom. Other keyboard apps allow for the keyboard to do this.

Con

Symbol order is (slightly) different from full-sized QWERTY keyboard

Instead of the first four symbols being !@#$%^& (i.e. shift+1 through 7 on a QWERTY keyboard), they're @#$%&. This is fine if you know the symbols in your password, but if you're like me and you just hold the SHIFT key and type a long number, you'll have to consult a real keyboard to figure out your password.

Con

Other languages not available in transliteration mode

Unlike Google Indic Keyboard where you can type by transliteration, compact, and handwriting, you only get the fixed layout for other languages.

Con

Only 26 languages

While a keyboard available in 26 languages is nothing to be ashamed of, other keyboard options simply offer more. SwiftKey is available in 61 languages and Swype is available in 71. Fortunately, if your language is one of the 26, you're good.

Con

It doesn't have arrow keys

Several times it is much better to navigate through a long text using arrow keys than scrolling and tapping the place where you want the cursor to be. SwiftKey has arrow keys (via an option), Gboard has not.

Con

Google, via the keyboard app, might be collecting data on us that it then sells to third parties which in turn can use that data to influence us

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